F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 120 Alonso steps in

Besides testing components for future upgrade plans, Shu Long and Albon spent a significant amount of time this week working on the simulator to finalize the initial setup for the next race, the Spanish Grand Prix.

As for why it was only initial training.

That's because the data displayed by the simulator ultimately deviates from that of the real race car. The current work is equivalent to narrowing down the testing scope for the next race week in advance, so that drivers have more time to find the true limits of the car.

The work on the simulator is not simply about finding the most comfortable tuning; the main thing is to try as many different tuning schemes as possible.

Often, a driver's comfort level doesn't necessarily mean they'll be the fastest. While a comfortable setup can allow a driver to consistently perform at 100% of their potential, it doesn't mean that such a setup can squeeze out 100% of the car's potential.

To drive a race car at its fastest speed, drivers often need to make some very counterintuitive choices.

It's like a curve that an ordinary person wouldn't dare to step on the gas, but a racer would;

When a race car driver finds that the braking force is not as expected when the brakes are applied, an ordinary person will subconsciously apply more force to the brakes, but race car drivers know how to overcome this intuition and instinct, and instead release the brakes to regain braking force.

That's roughly the principle, except that in the process of finding the true limits of racing, drivers not only need to overcome the intuition and instincts of an ordinary person, but they also need to overcome the instincts of a driver.

Shu Long was no exception. He had developed instinctive reactions that he had gradually accumulated through his past driving experience. However, when the characteristics of racing cars changed, he needed to constantly correct or even break and reshape his understanding.

However, compared to Alben, his adaptability in this area is practically cheating.

That is definitely cheating.
The terms "Friction Control" and "Sharp Eyes" allow Shulong to analyze the performance and feeling of the race car from both physical and visual perspectives, and more clearly determine the limits of the race car.

【Tai Chi】 allows the dragon to have a higher margin of error when it comes to risky actions that test the limits.

Because this entry has only been partially unlocked so far, its current level of sensitivity only allows Shulong to make timely corrections to the race car when it breaks through its limits.

In the Shanghai Grand Prix, just two races ago, Shu Long was able to complete an incredible overtaking maneuver under complex wind conditions, thanks in no small part to Tai Chi's control of the car's balance.

The ability to remember everything is not just about memorizing and analyzing track details. All the information collected from the aforementioned terms can be firmly engraved into a new "instinct" by the ability to remember everything.

Therefore, Shulong's work on the simulator is often extremely efficient. Even without the [Core of Synergy], his efficiency in improving the team's research and development can be quite considerable.

Think about it.

While other drivers or test drivers often complete the testing of a particular upgrade solution in the same amount of time, Shulong can complete two or three tests. Just by eliminating incorrect directions, this can save the team a lot of time.

That's how it should have been, but in practice, Shu Long found that his work efficiency at Little Red Bull seemed to be much lower than at Milton Keynes.

Because in reality, there are very few incorrect answers that can be ruled out when it comes to Shulong.
The upgrade plans from Toro Rosso are generally conservative. Apart from some parts that are obviously negative upgrades, most of the upgrade plans made by the engineers are pretty good for Shu Long, because he can always achieve a higher lap time limit than the original car design.

Even when it comes to the details of each type of corner, he can constantly change his driving style to bring out the performance that the upgrade should have.

Most of these proposals were ultimately rejected by the engineers because Alben felt that the upgrade plans always seemed to have some kind of flaw or hidden danger.

As a result, after four days of testing, Shu Long felt like he was very busy, but also like he hadn't accomplished anything, as if he was just slacking off while playing a racing game on a simulator.

On the contrary, Alben has benefited greatly.

Although he felt somewhat sorry for Shu Long, he at least prevented the Toro Rosso race car from recklessly heading in an increasingly unpredictable and uncontrollable direction. The next round of upgrades for Toro Rosso will at least still lean more towards his style.

Of course, he asked himself if he had done anything wrong, after all, he had seriously tested and compared these upgrade plans, and the data showed that the race car had indeed improved a lot in many aspects.

In addition, he did learn a lot from Shu Long in terms of understanding certain aspects of the track.

It can't even be called stealing knowledge; Shu Long directly told him many things.

This teammate, who is four years younger than him, has this good quality: he doesn't hide anything when asked, and he's very willing to communicate with each other.

It felt like finally finding a kindred spirit to confide in, almost turning him into a chatterbox. Even though Alben himself didn't want to ask anymore, Shulong kept babbling on and on.

Honestly, it's terrifying!
When Alben first met Shu Long in the F2 stage, he always thought Shu Long was a quiet and shy kid. Who would have thought that he would turn out like this after they got to know each other?
However, while Shulong shares his insights, only a small portion of the audience can actually listen to them.

Alben learned his lesson early on during the winter testing phase.

Shulong's training was exactly like the plan they ran on the simulator. Occasionally it would be particularly extreme, but most of the time, with the intervention of the engineers, it would actually be somewhat mediocre.

The two styles are actually not much different. Even with the exact same setup, he would never achieve the same lap time as Shu Long, and would be terribly slow.

This is quite different from Gasly's situation. Verstappen's training is like a solution to an extremely complex formula. Gasly can barely copy the general idea, but he can't understand it or use it.

Shu Long's process was particularly bizarrely simplified. It seemed like he just wrote a solution and casually fudged a few lines to produce the answer. Only Shu Long himself knew what actually happened in between.

Busy work always makes time fly by, and before long, the Spanish Grand Prix race week arrived.

It was a rare quiet match week, without the pressure of playing at home or the attention that comes with a birthday celebration. Even relatives and friends from Shulong didn't suddenly want to bother us.

But as Alonso's home turf, this is the first time that the renowned agent, Shu Long, has reappeared in the paddock in this capacity.

When Shu Long saw the other person in his own P room, he suddenly felt a strange sense of disorientation.

"Huh?! How come I had no idea beforehand?!"

"I thought you would know. Haven't you been watching the news these past few days?"

No, not really. These past few days, Shulong has been living a simple and frugal life. Apart from clearing out the games on his phone and collecting monthly cards, he hasn't even had time to play on the computer.

Speechless for a moment, Alonso took out his phone and showed Shu Long the news reports from a few days ago about him representing Toyota's No. 8 car in the Spa-6 Hour endurance race.

In addition to reporting on the overall race, the article also mentioned Alonso's post-victory interview, in which the legendary crossover driver didn't forget to give Shulong a shout-out at the end.

Not only did he highly praise Shu Long's outstanding performance in the first two races, but he also made a high-profile announcement that he would go to his hometown stadium for the next race to cheer on his riders.

"I won a championship back then, and you don't even pay attention to that, which really makes me sad!" Shu Long was a little embarrassed. Sometimes he was indeed a bit too oblivious to what was going on around him. For example, many other drivers still followed football matches, but he didn't even know many football stars by name.

Many of the celebrities who frequently appear in the VIP viewing area of ​​the P room are so famous that even Shu Long can't tell them apart, and he's too lazy to use his "photographic memory" to remember these unimportant names and faces.

But Alonso is now his agent, so it's a bit unreasonable for him not to care about this much.

While Shu Long was still pondering how to express his apology, Alonso's expression immediately softened, and he put his arm around Shu Long's shoulder and patted him on the back twice.

"Hahaha, look how panicked you are! Is this how an F1 driver behaves?"

The paddock used to be chaotic, so chaotic that Alonso had to force himself to integrate in order to survive. A pure guy like Kimi is extremely rare in the entire history of F1.

But the paddock is much better now than it used to be; the new generation of young drivers are as innocent as children compared to them.

Drivers should ultimately be more pure in their approach, which is why Alonso was particularly fond of Verstappen before, and is now willing to invest in Shulong as well.

What is there to say?

"Not everyone in the paddock likes Kimi, but absolutely no one hates Kimi."

Some pitfalls are enough for the older generation to learn from. Alonso himself has become the very thing he once hated most, and he doesn't want Shulong, as his driver, to follow in his footsteps.

Otherwise, wouldn't he be doing this job as an agent for nothing?
Not wanting to bring up those messy past events in front of Shu Long, Alonso couldn't help but feel a little wistful when he thought back to the past.

“Little Red Bull, standing here makes me feel like I’ve returned to the Minardi era, except now not only the name has changed, but the people have changed too.”

This sentence sounds so dated that Shu Long, who was only nineteen years old, didn't know how to respond for a moment.

"At least the factory hasn't changed. You can go back and take a look when you have time?"

"I'll wait for a chance. My schedule is actually quite busy this year, and besides coming to cheer you on, I also have a lot of other things to take care of this time."

"Then...you can go ahead and get busy?"

"Oh ho? You're in such a hurry to get rid of me? Since you've come all this way, I'll definitely want to see how you perform first!"

"oh oh."

Alonso chuckled and scratched Shulong's hair, then suddenly seemed to remember something and casually mentioned it.

"One more thing, do you think your performance is enough to earn you a spot with Red Bull?"

"It should be okay, right? Dr. Marco called me and told me to do my best and be ready at any time. But Gasly has been running quite well lately, so I think it might be next year at the earliest."

"Next year? Hmm. The practice matches are starting soon, you go ahead and do your thing, just pretend I'm not here."

As he spoke, Alonso glanced unconsciously at Albon, watching as Shu Long got into his race car, arms crossed, wearing headphones, seemingly lost in thought.

He was listening to the team radio from Toro Rosso in his headphones, which allowed him to hear conversations from both the Shulong and Albon crews. He wanted to see if he could glean any clues from them.

The result was no; the two were so harmonious that they didn't seem like bitter rivals at all, which was different from the rumors he had recently received.

Some things are secrets that even the paparazzi inside the paddock can't access; they're basically passed down by word of mouth among a small number of management and a very limited number of drivers.

Alonso learned about this from Vettel via message, and Vettel's source was directly Marco.

Marko may be a nightmare for many young drivers, but for Vettel he is a benefactor who is no less than a relative. Before Verstappen, Vettel and Marko had the closest relationship.

Even though he left the Red Bull system many years ago, Vettel still maintains frequent contact with Marko to this day.

It's not that Marco wants to bring Vettel back to Red Bull to drive again, but Vettel's age and skills are gradually declining, and Marco seems to be subtly considering bringing Vettel back to take over Red Bull's youth academy after his retirement.

After all, Marco is getting on in years, and he's not sure if he can safely extricate himself from this power struggle, so he has to make some other plans in advance.

However, to be fair, Marco's feelings for Red Bull were not just about a lust for power.

As a system that he built and gradually matured, Old Man Marbury truly has the same affection for Red Bull's youth training as he would for his own children.

The old man felt that even after he retired, he probably wouldn't be able to rest easy. If he were to be ousted from the company, and the person who took over was someone close to him like Vettel, he would still be able to say something to them.

Vettel has not yet responded to Marco's offer, but he has subconsciously put himself in Red Bull's youth academy management's shoes, thinking about what choices he would make if he were in that position.

The answer is that we must seize this promising opportunity in Shulong!
From Bahrain to Baku, despite the young Chinese driver embarrassing him in several races, Uncle Wai Tou still couldn't help but appreciate Shu Long's driving from a pure driver's perspective.

Vettel had heard about the turmoil within Red Bull, and the current chaos within the team was even worse than the worst period in history.

From Vettel's perspective, it would be a shame if a driver like Shu Long were to waste his prime years on pointless team politics, which could last for an unknown period of time.

So he turned his attention to Alonso, who was one of the few players who could intervene in Shulong's current situation.

It's really too difficult. China's experience in this sport is almost nonexistent, and its connections and resources within the paddock are pitifully scarce. Almost everything has to be started from scratch.

Fortunately, Alonso became Shulong's agent; otherwise, even if Vettel wanted to help, he wouldn't know how to proceed.

As a result, without Shu Long's knowledge, Alonso found an opportunity to ambush Marco, and the two argued for quite a while in a secluded place.

What they talked about is unknown to outsiders, but this scene was captured by a reporter from Weichang who happened to be passing by.

Rumors spread like wildfire in the paddock for a time, but soon subsided. Most people interpreted the photo as just a routine meeting.

(End of this chapter)